Tom Hamilton Biography
Tom Hamilton (Full names; Thomas William Hamilton) is an American musician, best known as the bassist for the hard rock bands Aerosmith and Thin Lizzy. He has regularly co-written songs for Aerosmith, including two of the band’s biggest hits: “Sweet Emotion” (1975) and “Janie’s Got a Gun” (1989). Hamilton occasionally plays guitar (e.g. “Uncle Salty”, “Sick as a Dog”), sings backing vocals (e.g. “Love in an Elevator”) and on rare occasions, lead vocals (“Up On The Mountain”).
He first learned to play guitar from his brother, who got his first guitar when Tom was four years old. Hamilton first started playing guitar when his older brother Scott taught him his first chords at age 12. Tom switched to bass when he was 14 to join a local band because they had an open space at that position. Hamilton was in a few bands with soon-to-be Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and David “Pudge” Scott. One of the bands was simply called “The Jam Band”. It was at a Jam Band gig in summer 1970 at a place called “The Barn” in Sunapee, New Hampshire, that the Jam Band met Steven Tyler, and the four of them agreed to move to Boston to start a band (not yet named Aerosmith). Scott left the group shortly thereafter, being replaced by Tyler on drums.
Tom Hamilton Age
Tom was born on December 31, 1951, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. He is 67 years old as of 2018.
Tom Hamilton Net Worth
Hamilton has an estimated net worth of $100 Million. That net worth is actually higher than his bandmates because Tyler has also stretched out his endeavors to more than just the legendary rock band. May 22, 2016, best known for his work with the rock band Aerosmith. He served as the band’s bassist and has helped write a number of their songs, two of which grew to be some of Aerosmith’s biggest hits, Sweet Emotion and Janie’s Got a Gun. He is also credited with helping write a number of their less successful songs.
Tom Hamilton Wife
Terry Cohen and Tom Hamilton have been married for 44 years. They were dating for 3 years after getting together in 1972 and were married in Jan 1975.
Tom Hamilton Bass
Hamilton is the tallest member of the band at 6’1″. He is also the “funny one” of Aerosmith, always looking for chances to make jokes in interviews and also being one of the bigger talkers at interviews.[citation needed] According to the band’s official website, Hamilton’s favorite song by the band is “The Farm” (from the 1997 album Nine Lives). He married Terry Cohen in 1975 and they have two children, Julian and Sage.
In August 2006, he announced that he was diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer and completed a seven-week course of radiation and chemotherapy. He was forced to miss Aerosmith’s Route of All Evil Tour. David Hull (who has played in the Joe Perry Project) filled in for Hamilton. Hamilton had never previously missed an Aerosmith show.
He joined the band for the performance of “Sweet Emotion” at their Boston show in September 2006, and at the private show at the Beacon Theatre in New York, on December 3, 2006, where he reclaimed his place with the band for the entire performance. On December 20, 2006, Hamilton reported on Aero Force One that he is cancer-free after a recent PET scan.
He underwent further surgery and did not play some of the Aerosmith/ZZ Top Tour and again, was replaced by David Hull. Hamilton’s cancer returned in 2011, and he has since been treated and is recovering. In April 2013, Hamilton was forced to retire from the band’s tour in Australia for health reasons. He returned to the US after contracting an infection in the chest region.
David Hull, who has replaced Hamilton in other tours of Aerosmith, took his place. Early in 2016, Hamilton was also announced as the new bassist for Thin Lizzy. Hamilton has stated that his favorite bassists are John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, and Paul McCartney.
Tom Hamilton Instruments
Hamilton has used a wide variety of bass guitars over Aerosmith’s career. He has stated in several interviews that his first bass was a Fender Precision that he borrowed and later bought from a friend. During the early years of Aerosmith and the time after their reformation, he often used a Music Man bass, a Fender Precision Bass, a Fender Jazz Bass, or a Gibson Thunderbird. During the “Dude Looks Like A Lady” sequence of Wayne’s World 2, he is seen playing a Gibson Les Paul bass. However, during the making of Just Push Play, he called upon a Hofner Violin Bass or a double bass during many of the recording sessions.
Recently he has favored a modified ’51 Fender Precision Bass with double pickups instead of one for the recording of Honkin’ On Bobo and the subsequent tours following the album’s creation. It is known that he also uses Parker basses, since he appeared playing this bass in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, though he was seen playing one at the 2004 concert in Japan. As of June 2009, he was touring with five Sadowsky basses in addition to others.
Hamilton has been playing G&L ASAT Basses for nearly twenty years since he bought his first blue metal flake ASAT Bass at 48th Street Custom Guitars in New York City. Since then, G&L has built several more ASAT Basses in a variety of finishes, but there’s something about G&L’s over-the-top metal flake finishes that keeps him coming back for more. He has a signature G&L ASAT Bass model. He discusses his signature basses in rig rundowns most notably in 2012 on the Global Warming Tour.
Tom Hamilton Illness
Aerosmith’s Tom Hamilton was initially diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006. After the disease went into remission, it returned in 2011. Recently Hamilton gave fans an update on his health. According to The Pulse Of Radio, he told the Long Island Pulse: “My doctor thought I was pretty much done with cancer that I had in ’06 and then it came back a few years later. I was faced with losing my way of life… if not my life. But there’s a guy here in Boston that Adele [mentioned when she got her Grammy], Steven Zeitels, who does novel surgeries and was able to do a procedure that got cancer out of my throat without having to ruin the rest of it.”
He continued, “I just saw him the other day and he said, ‘You beat this one. You can keep coming to see me if you want, but I don’t think you need to worry about this cancer coming back.’ I said, ‘I’ll come back to see you every six months from here until eternity if it’s alright with you!’”
In the past, Hamilton told The Pulse Of Radio that successfully battling cancer gave him a new appreciation for life. “Y’know, one of the ironic things is that, and it’s kind of a cliché, y’ know, about the little things in life, but I’m constantly noticing little pleasures like that,” he said. “And because — y’ know, I’m pretty sure I’m cool, but you never know, you might go in there and they’ll say, ‘Oh, there’s some kind of trouble going on,’ so you really do put a priority on enjoying the stuff that’s right in front of you.”
Tom’s replacement at the Aerosmith shows that he missed while receiving cancer treatment was David Hull (Pictured Below), who has stood in for Hamilton on previous Aerosmith tours.
Aerosmith’s latest effort, 2012’s Music From Another Dimension!, debuted at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 album chart, selling 63,000 copies in its first week of release. The group’s previous collection of new songs, 2001’s “Just Push Play”, entered the chart at No. 2 with sales of 240,000 copies.
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